I’m wondering whether the rationalists can effectively use mercenaries. Why doesn’t the US have more mercenaries than US soldiers? In the typically poverty-stricken areas where US forces operate, we could hire and equip 100-1000 locals for the price of a single US soldier (which, when you figure in health-care costs, is so much that we basically can’t afford to fight wars using American soldiers anymore). We might also have less war opposition back at home if Americans weren’t dying.
But there might be cheaper options. If we paid Afghan girls $10/day to go to school, would the Taliban collapse?
We could be a little more subtle. Start by offering jobs to do something the Taliban wouldn’t consider threatening—Mechanical Turk work-from-home stuff not requiring literacy, via some kind of specialized radio or satellite link with no access to porn or feminism or anything the Taliban would object to. Every family wants one of those terminals and they can make twice as much money if the girls work (from home) too. Gradually offer higher pay for higher skill levels, starting with nonthreatening stuff like arithmetic but escalating to translating the Koran and then to tasks that would involve reading a wide variety of secular material, analyzing political and judicial systems of different countries (still maybe disguised as a translating job)…
But there might be cheaper options. If we paid Afghan girls $10/day to go to school, would the Taliban collapse?
There’s no shortage of Afghan girls who already want to go to school or of parents who want to send them. The problem is that there are people who mutilate girls who attend these schools. In the short run, at least, sticks are often more effective at getting the acquiescence of the population than carrots; when collaborators keep getting killed, it’s hard to get willing collaborators no matter how much money you offer.
I see how the first part of my post could be read as “we need to motivate girls to go to school”, which wasn’t my intent. More a matter of motivating tradition-bound parents to see educated girls as a major source of income. But I understand that going to school can be risky in Taliban-dominated areas, which is why the second part of my post was all home-based and therefore hard for the Taliban to detect. Even so, I agree that any obvious link to the US government could be a problem.
I’m wondering whether the rationalists can effectively use mercenaries. Why doesn’t the US have more mercenaries than US soldiers? In the typically poverty-stricken areas where US forces operate, we could hire and equip 100-1000 locals for the price of a single US soldier (which, when you figure in health-care costs, is so much that we basically can’t afford to fight wars using American soldiers anymore). We might also have less war opposition back at home if Americans weren’t dying.
We do use mercenaries: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/10/mercenaries-in-iraq-to-take-over-soldiers-jobs.html
But there might be cheaper options. If we paid Afghan girls $10/day to go to school, would the Taliban collapse?
We could be a little more subtle. Start by offering jobs to do something the Taliban wouldn’t consider threatening—Mechanical Turk work-from-home stuff not requiring literacy, via some kind of specialized radio or satellite link with no access to porn or feminism or anything the Taliban would object to. Every family wants one of those terminals and they can make twice as much money if the girls work (from home) too. Gradually offer higher pay for higher skill levels, starting with nonthreatening stuff like arithmetic but escalating to translating the Koran and then to tasks that would involve reading a wide variety of secular material, analyzing political and judicial systems of different countries (still maybe disguised as a translating job)…
There’s no shortage of Afghan girls who already want to go to school or of parents who want to send them. The problem is that there are people who mutilate girls who attend these schools. In the short run, at least, sticks are often more effective at getting the acquiescence of the population than carrots; when collaborators keep getting killed, it’s hard to get willing collaborators no matter how much money you offer.
See also.
I see how the first part of my post could be read as “we need to motivate girls to go to school”, which wasn’t my intent. More a matter of motivating tradition-bound parents to see educated girls as a major source of income. But I understand that going to school can be risky in Taliban-dominated areas, which is why the second part of my post was all home-based and therefore hard for the Taliban to detect. Even so, I agree that any obvious link to the US government could be a problem.